Scotland has become the first country in the world to stop its hospitals using the anaesthetic desflurane because of the threat it poses to the environment, after NHS data showed the gas, which keeps people unconscious during surgery, has a global warming potential 2 500 times greater than carbon dioxide.
Banning it in Scotland would cut emissions equal to powering 1 700 homes a year, reports the BBC.
UK hospitals have already cut down, with more than 40 hospital trusts in England and a number of hospitals in Wales having stopped using it.
NHS England will introduce a similar ban from 2024, which, like Scotland, prohibits its use for anything but exceptional circumstances.
Dr Kenneth Barker, anaesthetist and clinical lead for Scotland’s National Green Theatres Programme, said he was shocked to find the anaesthetic drug he had used for more than a decade for many major and routine operations was so harmful to the environment.
“I realised in 2017 that the amount of desflurane we used in a typical day as an anaesthetist resulted in emissions equivalent to me driving 1 000km that day,” he said.
“I decided to stop using it straight away and many fellow anaesthetists have got on board.”
A number of hospitals have switched to safe and effective anaesthetic gases with less warming potential, such as sevoflurane, which has a global warming potential only 130 times that of carbon dioxide, or to using alternative non-gaseous anaesthetics and more efficient equipment.
Overall, anaesthetic gases make up about 2%-5% of the NHS’ carbon footprint, and efforts are under way to tackle other medical gases like nitrous oxide.
NHS England’s net-zero strategy includes looking at more environmentally-friendly heating and lighting systems, greener vehicles and examining the environmental impact of how medicines and equipment are supplied to the NHS.
BBC article – Scotland first to ban environmentally harmful anaesthetic (Open access)
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